


When You Are Given, Eat

by orphan_account



Series: Transgender Young Avengers [2]
Category: Young Avengers
Genre: M/M, Romani Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 05:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5036413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy spends some time with Wanda and Pietro and slowly discovers his Romani heritage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When You Are Given, Eat

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: 
> 
> Before writing this I looked up Wanda and Pietro's current arcs and thought, "This is a lot of bullshit I don't want to deal with." So, creative liberties have been taken with the comic canon. Wanda was able to clean up M-Day and is now tutoring Billy. Pietro is drifting around, but usually ends up on his sister's couch.

_Witch_. The word made Billy's skin crawl every time he heard it. Initially, all he could think about was female Hogwarts students and the Salem Witch Trials—or, girls, and being a girl. Technicalities didn't matter, because connotations would trump them every time. In the Young Avengers' first big headline he was called a witch. Not Asgardian, just a witch. And the photo that went along with it was kind of blurry. Compared to Teddy's huge form and Eli's chiseled profile, Billy looked so small and androgynous and girly. He had scowled and crumpled up the magazine and threw it on the ground, and Teddy quickly suggested pizza. Neither of them mentioned the article for the rest of the night.

 

It only worsened when the reality of his powers began to set in. He felt like an emotional bomb, over-sensitive, stereotypically feminine _and_ gay. Once a month Billy's violate magic would become strong enough to interfere with the cable and internet, rendering them useless. His parents learned to leave him be, after Rebecca asked if he wanted to talk and their generator short-circuited and had to be replaced. For a week Teddy would be the only one able to actually lure him out of bed, if only to play Mario Kart with the boys in the living room. Sometimes he would bring Billy a chocolate bar, but covered up his motives by handing his little brothers ones too.

 

When he changed his title to Wiccan things became marginally better, but the discomfort still lingered as everyone's identities solidified into something noble, strong, and useful, while Billy remained unpredictable, unreliable, and unsafe. Teddy could lift cars and punch someone through walls; Kate could collapse a skull with a good kick and never missed a target; Billy could only ask for things, if his magic even allowed it, or else he'd black out and accidentally rearrange a rift in reality or two.

 

Then there was Mother and Loki and a gun pressed against his jaw and that New Year's was the first time Billy felt weightless in a long time. He started testosterone soon after, which helped ease some of his problems, or at least at surface value.

 

It's nearing April now, and Billy has been visiting his mother for a couple of weeks. She purposely kept her distance from New York and the Avengers Mansion, choosing to reside in a New England cottage where the temperature stubbornly remains below fifty.

 

Despite this, Billy's shirt is currently soaked through with sweat. He's kneeled before a spluttering rune in the middle of the sun room, and as Wanda steps forward from his blurry peripheral vision its blue glow finally dies out.

 

“Take a break, dear,” Wanda advises. She places her hand on his shoulder, and, moved by the physical contact, Billy leans back on his heels.

 

“I almost had it!” he whines, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

 

“Give it time.” Wanda hands him a glass of lemonade. Then, after a pause, she sits down on the hardwood floor beside him, her bangles clicking together.

 

Billy sighs and downs the lemonade in one drink, then observes his mother. Her skin glows bronze in the sunlight. He glances at his hands and finds them offensively pale, wishing he looked as Romani as his blood.

 

“I just need to fix everything,” he says, suddenly.

Wanda gently takes the glass from his hand and sets it aside. “You've realized your mistakes far quicker than I. You should be proud.”

 

Billy scoffs. “As if that means anything.”

 

Her gaze sharpens. “You should know better than anyone that your intentions count for more than your capabilities.”

 

He purses his lips. “I guess.”

 

Wanda lifts her hand and brushes his hair away from his forehead. “Everything will be alright.”

 

Billy finds himself leaning into the touch. A second later she pulls away, and he tries not to make a face.

 

“How is your brother doing?” she asks, winding her arms around her legs.

 

“He and Teddy are running together all the time, I guess.”

 

Wanda raises her eyebrows. “Really?”

 

Billy smiles. “Yeah. I think it's making Teddy feel a lot better.”

 

“I'm surprised Tommy was even capable of detecting emotion.”

 

He laughs at that. “I think all the sappy stuff is growing on him.”

 

Wanda's eyes soften. “He still has yet to come over.”

 

“Uh, yeah.” Billy frowns. “He's not big on family. Don't take it personally. He couldn't last a week at my parent's house.” His eyes widen. “I mean—”

 

Wanda shakes her head. “It's fine, sweetheart. I understand. You are their son, too.”

 

“Well.” He waves his hand around. “Tommy'll come around eventually.”

 

“Hmm. He takes after Pietro in more ways than one.”

 

There's a rush of air, and they both turn.

 

“You called?”

 

Wanda beams and vaults off of the floor. “Brother!”

 

Pietro laughs, enveloping her in a tight hug. “Hey.”

 

Billy stands, dusting his hands off on his jeans. “Hi.”

 

He's roughly pulled into the Maximoff group hug by Pietro's other arm. “C'mere, squirt. Where's mini me?”

 

“Trying to seduce Kate, I think, last I heard,” Billy says.

 

“Oh, hell. Either she's gonna send an arrow through his eye, or Clint will.”

 

“Probably.”

 

“What's this?” Wanda asks.

 

Pietro releases them and opens the box he's held in his hand. “Just some stuff straight from Transia.”

 

Wanda's smile widens. “Oh, Pietro.”

 

Billy looks inside the box, which holds a bunch of rich-smelling jars. Wanda has told him a little bit about her childhood, but from what he can gather she and his uncle didn't have much of one. Yet she immediately runs into the kitchen and levitates utensils out of their drawers and onto the cabinet while taking the jars out of the box.

 

“What is it?” Billy asks.

 

Pietro claps his shoulder. “ _Te den, xa, te maren, de-nash_.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Wanda narrows her eyes. “It is a saying.”

 

“It means eat your mother's sarma, or I'll kick your ass.”

 

Billy steps next to Wanda. “Oh.”

 

“Here.” She passes him a yellow onion. “Chop this.”

 

And so Billy cuts onions while Pietro cooks the lamb from Transia and Wanda starts mixing different spices into a large bowl. Pietro talks about his travels and Wanda tells him about Billy's progress. Billy hangs back, observing their banter and mannerisms and how Pietro will nudge Wanda's hip and she'll know he needs garlic powder, or how she will shoot him a withering look and he'll backpedal and talk about her lovely flowers. Billy remembers the tormented people he originally met, and his chest blossoms with warmth at the sight of their easy conversation.

 

“I think they're done, kiddo,” Pietro points out.

 

“What?” Billy looks down at the cutting board, where the onions have been minced to miniscule pieces. “Oh.”

 

Wanda smiles. “Thank you.” She pours the onions in with the bowl of spices, and Pietro adds the lamb. Then all three of them begin forming oblong balls of meat in their palms. Once they're done, Pietro wraps them up in cabbage, puts them into a pot to simmer, and pours tomato juice on top, all in about three seconds. If that.

 

They sit out on the porch with more lemonade as the sarma cooks. Billy pulls his phone out of his pocket and texts Teddy when Wanda invites Pietro to look at her garden.

 

_Practice sucked, but Pietro is over. I think he's trying to teach me Romanes?_

 

_Nice. Do u know anything._

 

_He threatened to murder me if I didn't eat Wanda's swarma._

 

_Omg._

 

Billy bites his lip, grinning. _He's like Tommy but toned down. It's kind of creepy._

 

_So are u going to turn into your mom then?_

 

Billy laughs. _Shut up._

 

At the sound of heavy footsteps Billy looks up and sees Pietro walking over. “Wanda started freaking out about weeds and I left.” He sits down next to Billy in the wicker bench and sends a sidelong glance to Billy's phone. “Who's that? Your _g_ _adjikane_ _rom_?”

 

“My what?” Billy asks.

 

“Teddy.”

 

“Ah. Yeah.” His face reddens.

 

Pietro hums. “He is treating you well?”

 

Billy pockets his phone. “Of course.”

 

“Good. You're starting to grow on me, nephew, you know that?”

 

He smiles. “Thanks.”

 

“We should have met long ago. When you were a child. It is unfortunate.”

 

The smile fades away. “Oh, well... Things are nice now, aren't they?”

 

Pietro's eyes crinkle at the corners. He turns at the sound of Wanda stomping away from the garden with dandelions in her hands. “Yes. They are.”

 

They return inside, eat the sarma, and play a few rounds of cards. Pietro twitches sometimes, though Billy soon figures out he's actually zipping around the table to get a look at their hands once he wins three times in a row. By the fourth game he and Wanda fold, look at each other over the table, and laugh.

 

At ten Wanda is setting up the couch for Pietro, who is taking their plates into the kitchen, and Billy sees a figure standing in the road from the living room window. He glances at his mother and uncle, but when he turns back, the figure is gone.

 

Wanda sends him home with extra sarma. In the kitchen, as she fastens the lid of the Tupperware, she says, “When you are given, eat, and when you are beaten, run.” She hands Billy the leftovers. “That's what Pietro said.” She kisses him on the cheek before he leaves, and Pietro hugs him again.

 

When Billy returns to the apartment he finds Teddy and Tommy playing Call of Duty, and as he opens the refrigerator Tommy walks into the kitchen to refill his cup of soda.

 

“You know you can come in next time,” Billy says casually.

 

Tommy pauses, the two liter of Mountain Dew held frozen in mid-air.

 

Billy pats his shoulder. “Just saying.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I thought Billy would be uncomfortable with the connotations "witch" brings, so here he is trying to overcome it. I've also never seen any fic with him exploring his Romani culture, which I find strange. 
> 
> "When you are given, eat, when you are beaten, run," is a Romani proverb. Pietro called Teddy Billy's "non-Romani husband." I found a Romani-English Glossary [here.](http://www2.arnes.si/~eusmith/Romany/glossary.html) If there are any incongruities or mistakes with the language/culture, please tell me. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
